David Bedein

When someone is convicted of a crime as serious as first degree murder and if that convict applies for parole, it is the responsibility of the criminal justice system, in any nation on earth, to provide a professional mental health evaluation that would ascertain if, the killer has expressed regret for his actions and if the killer has turned a new path, and if there is chance that the convict would kill again.

That is what is known as preventing recidivism, the possibility that someone convicted of a crime will repeat the crime once again.

The Center for Near East Policy Research dispatched interviewers into Israeli jails to film Arabs convicted of murdering Israelis. Every interviewee, man and woman, emphatically said that, if released, they would murder more Israelis.

With Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu’s proposed release of more that 100 convicted murderers, our agency submitted a formal question to the office of the Prime Minister, Defense Minister and representatives of Israel’s criminal justice system, to ask if the Israeli government had requested an evaluation of the mental state of each convict who was about to be released.

The answer was no.

Instead, the government relies on feedback from the Israeli security establishment, which shares the political agenda of the Israeli government, which is to extend a gesture of good faith to Mahmud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, so that talks may resume..

This is the same Abbas who runs the PBC TV and radio network which lauds Palestinians who murder Israeli citizens in cold blood, on frequencies provided to the PBC by the government of Israel.

At no time has Israel made the specific demand that Abbas desist from heaping praise on killers and transforming murderers into role models.

Successive governments of Israel prefer to issue generalized statements that Abbas should stop e all incitement, instead of pulling the plug on the PBC for using Israeli government frequencies to praise the murder of Israeli citizens.

This is a policy which not only proposes to free unrepentant killers, all of whom have been receiving monthly payments from the Palestinian Authority. This is a policy which provides the added inspiration and endorsement to kill once again.

This is not a case where “crime does not pay.” The proposed release of unrepentant murderers conveys a new message: “Crime Pays.”

People around the world who care about the rudiments of justice should let the Prime Minister and Defense Minister of Israel hear their feedback